Catch Report

Park head Ghillie, Keith Cromar and 9 year old Calvin Macdonald return a 7lbr.

Published:07:00Sunday 05 July 2015

Share this article

There were 29 fish and 125 sea trout reported to the FishDee website last week. That tells its own story. Salmon numbers remain low and while the end of June is often quite dour it is more pronounced this year. There was a reasonable run of fish seen in Aberdeen on Friday, so in conjunction with our good water levels I hope we seem them materialise on the end of our anglers’ rods this coming week.

I fished Park on Saturday with my son Calvin and we managed to tempt a 7lb fish from the House Pool on a Pot Belly Pig. Just upstream at Lower Crathes Mr Cameron had a fish of 6lb and Mr Allan had a grilse. There were a couple of nice sea trout for Alastair Hume and Mr Buchan to 3lb. Gordon Mutch saved Tilquhillie’ s week with a 5lb fish and a sea trout late on Saturday, both on a small Silver Stoat conehead.

Up at Cairnton and Middle Blackhall Colin Tait kicked things off with a 9lbr from Rock Heads and a 7lbr from the Cottage, both on a small Editor. Sea Trout provided the sport on Tuesday with 6 up to 3lb landed, some still liced, on small Silver Stoats and larger Sunrays. There were a couple more fish hooked and lost.

Aboyne Castle had 2 for the week; a grilse for Colin Innes and a 9lbr for one of the Craigendinnie rods fishing late. There were a few more fish lost. The two beats, which have an arrangement allowing rods access to both banks, shared 9 sea trout.

Dinnet/Deecastle shared 2 fish and 20 sea trout for the week. Paul Chambers got into gear early taking a grilse from Bruiach at 1am on Monday morning. Toby Buckler also had a grilse from Logie. The sea trout fishing was steady with two 5lbrs and a 4lbr among them.

Ian Murray reported 2 fish from Monaltrie and Lower Invercauld. One for Anthony Kelton at Monaltrie and one for the Kelton party at Lower Invercauld. The Glenmuick rods had better sport including a fresh 9lbr. Ian tells me they lost several more fish, possibly because of the small flies they were using. There are more fish in Ian’s beats now, but they have proved difficult to tempt.

John Johnstone landed both of Crathie’s fish and sea trout fishing late one evening on a Crathie tubes tied by Archie Hay.

PROSPECTS

Overhead conditions will be good this week, with high pressure. We will have good cover and a spot of rain midweek. Air temperatures are finally creeping up and we will have highs of 20 degrees.

Water levels are good following a couple of rises over the weekend. If there are some fish off the coast, now would be a good time to come in!

The floating line and small flies will dominate tactics again this week. The Crathie and Silver Stoat are popular and can be fished as small tubes and cones as well as the standard low water hooks. The Frances and Franc N Snaelda will also be useful. Long tailed flies such as the Park Shrimp and Flamethrower will be effective if we have a stain in the water. Mix the depth and speed of your fly. And as ever, listen to your ghillie!